Unofficial results for contested elections follow, from village officials or local news accounts (linked).
Delhi voted to keep its mayor, Richard Maxey, who won 162 votes to challenger Gerry Pilgrim's 89. In a race for two seats on the village board, incumbent Gregory Krzyston, with 161 votes, and newcomer Dan Ayres, with 159, won over previous trustee Margaret Baldwin with 136 and write-in Virginia Hoyt with 11. Read more
Upstate New Yorkers living under the sway of the state's littlest governments go to the polls today, to elect new mayors and village boards or give the incumbents another two years. For most New York State villages, Tuesday, March 19 is Election Day.
Elections in most Catskills villages promise to be a sleepy affair this year, with few challengers on the polls.
Guess the name of the species of tree pictured above by clicking this link and filling out the form. If you guess correctly, your name will be entered in a drawing for a free one-year membership to the Catskill Forest Association. If you have any questions, contact Julia Reischel at julia.reischel@watershedpost.com, or at 845-481-0155.
Spring may be due to kick off officially in just a couple of days, but winter isn't done with the Catskills yet. Starting tonight, the National Weather Service warns, we're in for a round of snow and sleet, with accumulations of up to eight inches in parts of the Catskills.
A winter storm warning issued by NWS Albany calls for four to eight inches of heavy snow and up to a quarter-inch of ice in Greene and Ulster Counties, beginning early this evening and continuing into early Tuesday morning. The storm will start out as snow and change over to sleet and ice overnight, with rain in the more low-lying areas. Read more
We found the pot of gold: It's at Roxbury Mountain Maple. (And a dozen-plus other syrupmakers around the Catskills, all celebrating Maple Weekend on March 16-17 and 23-24.) Photo from Roxbury Mountain Maple's Facebook page.
Editor's note: We have added more events to this post since it was first published.
Legend has it that an Iroquois chief accidentally tapped a maple when he’d just needed someplace to stick his tomahawk, and his significant other decided to try cooking with the liquid from the wounded tree. Thus began tree-to-table, and a lively lot of characters have been refining the art ever since.
Over the intervening years, syrup harvesters have found ways to be a bit gentler to the trees, which graciously donate their sweet essence year after year to humans who craft it into all sorts of delectable treats, a gentle act of organized foraging. Read more
It's 3.14 today, which means math nerds and pie-lovers around the world are celebrating Pi Day.
In honor of this most auspicious holiday, the Watershed Post is collecting beloved pie hotspots in the Catskills. (Like you really need an excuse for pie.) Got a favorite local source for fresh-baked pie? Let us know in a comment below, or tweet with the hashtag #CatskillsPie.
The National Weather Service out of Albany has issued a spate of advisories for the entire area. Delaware, Greene, Sullivan and Ulster counties are under a flood advisory until 5 pm. while Delaware and Sullivan are also under a flash flood watch. A flood watch has been issued for Schoharie, western Greene county and western Ulster.
Click here for a complete list of watches and warnings.
Schools are closed across the Catskills this Friday morning, and it looks like a snow globe out there. The Hudson Valley Weather Facebook page reports that the snowfall ranges from 1 to 10 inches deep across the region.
We want proof! Share your snow photos with us, and we will add them to our slideshow above. Read more
Each hunting season there is a certain amount of deer that must be harvested in order to last me through the year. Normally I first hunt those areas that are both accessible and abundant in deer. These conditions are usually met in the larger, more fertile valleys where a diversity of food and cover sources is available for wildlife. Fortunately, minimum deer harvest quotas were met early on and allowed for more time to be allocated towards hunting inaccessible areas in the mountains. Hunting these areas offers another type of hunting experience. Deer behavior and physiology can differ significantly when hunting pressure is low. Sitting in a tree-stand far away from the familiar sounds of human dwelling, the forest and its inhabitants become the focus. Read more
Above: Screenshot of a video from a Wednesday morning press conference by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and fellow Assembly Democrats on a bill that, if passed into law, will place a two-year moratorium on fracking in New York State. Source: The Albany Times-Union's Capitol Confidential blog. Watch the full video below.
A bill placing a two-year moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in New York State passed the Assembly by a wide margin on Wednesday, March 6, and is now headed for the Senate, according to several news reports.
